As ‘Jacksonville’ opens, the Fringe team heads to NYC after a building seems to merge with another after an earthquake. They find no survivors in the building except for a man who has four legs, four arms and a head growing out of his chest. (Where do they come up with this stuff?).

Olivia and Walter try to question him but he dies. Walter begins to think that the two buildings (one from this world and one from the alternate world) have merged. Olivia thinks Newton has to do with it too.

Walter thinks that a similar building went to the other universe too so things will be balanced. In order to save everyone inside, they need to figure out what building is going to move to the other side. Walter tells Olivia only she will be able to see which building it will be.

The team heads to Jacksonville because Walter believes in order for Olivia to see the glimmer that she needs to see to know which building will move, she has to be tested where the original Cortexiphan trials were done. After going under, Olivia is reminded of what happened to her as a child. She remembers how awful it was but still can’t see the glimmer when she wakes up. Walter explains that Olivia needs to be afraid to be able to see the glimmer but she turns her fear into anger.

Left with unsuccessful results in Jacksonville, they all fly back to New York to see if they can figure out what building will disappear based on mass and weight.

They quickly realize that they won’t be able to figure out which building it is in time. Olivia is upset and as Peter tries to comfort her, they almost kiss. Olivia realizes she is suddenly afraid and runs to see the skyline and does see the glimmer. The team rushes to find the building and they evacuate it right before it is pulled over to the other side.

Later, Olivia and Peter are on their way out the door for drinks. Olivia realizes that Peter is glimmering too, meaning he is from the other side. When Peter runs upstairs to get his coat, Walter asks Olivia to keep the secret.

This week’s Fringe was one of best of the season (so far). As the episode opens, an cinnamon-scented airborne toxin causes people to die by being “suffocated from the inside-out,” as Walter puts it. We also learn more about the Bishop family tree.

Right away, Olivia realizes that one of the victims at a wedding party was a Holocaust survivor. The villain of the episode, a Nazi sympathizer, had developed a lethal formula that could pinpoint specific victims based on their DNA. All it needed was a heat-source dispersed into the air to be effective.

Much of the information the bad guy was using for his research came from an experiment conducted by Walter’s father. Peter’s grandfather was Dr. Robert Bishoff, a U.S. spy who worked in Germany in the World War II era.

The highlight of the hour was the tension between Walter and Peter. Walter wanted to see his father’s research notes, but Peter told him he’d sold them 10 years ago (while Walter was committed to St. Claire’s). Peter’s says that he needed the cash but did admit there was more to it. Witnessing how far Walter and Peter have come as father and son, it is easy to forget that Peter resented Walter for his upbringing and Walter’s abandonment. Its clear selling those books, at that time, was a way of acting out against those feelings.

In the end, Walter saves the day by killing the villain in a very public place, no doubt out of guilt as much as anything else.

At the end of the episode, Walter tells Olivia, “Family is very important to me; there’s nothing I wouldn’t do.” A fact that will surely be proven more and more as the story of Peter and the alternate word continues to unfold.

Last night on Fringe, as the show opens, a man gets off an elevator when his nose begins to bleed and within moments  he passes out. Then, a bike courier tries to give him CPR but his veins begin to bulge and break, spraying blood everywhere.

Olivia and Peter start the investigation while they wait for the rest of the team to arrive. While they are upstairs questioning witnesses, Walter and Broyles stand outside when suddenly the bike courier dies in the front lobby. They quickly realize what caused both deaths is a deadly virus which is contagious, and looking for a host.

They have to quarantine the building with Peter and Olivia still inside. As the day goes on, the virus keeps contaminating people and causes violent reactions among the victims before they eventually die.

Walter and a team of CDC agents finally enter the building in hazmat suits to try to get the uninfected people out. Olivia and Peter are cleared, but as they are about to leave, CDC agents realize Peter is infected too so he has to stay in the building with the others whoa re infected.

Knowing that Peter’s life is at stake, Walter works frantically until he discovers the antidote to the virus which is made up of household items. Walter figures out a solution to kill the virus, but they can’t get close to the infected people because they have become unruly.  As a last resort, Olivia goes back into the building and activates the ventilation system with  fentanyl gas that knocks the victims out. They are then able to give them all the antidote and everyone, including Peter, is saved.

In last night’s episode of Fringe, a young boy with a monstrous face accidentally leads to the death of three police officers. The fringe team is called to a remote town in New York State to investigate where Walter, who is still traumatized by his recent abduction, decides the boy is a metamorph which causes his physical appearance to switch from normal to grotesque. They quickly realize the boy isn’t the only one who is effected by this metamorph phenomenon.

These mutants aren’t just ugly, they can be very violent too. They try and kill Peter, Olivia and Walter by running them off the road and shooting at them. Later Peter has a shoot out with one in the woods but when he finds the body, its a man with no deformities.

The FBI brings the body back to the lab and they find out the mutants have something to do with Project Elephant which was carried out in this town years ago. Walter initially does not recall working on the project, but after Astrid mentions the law library that Walter went to, they are able to return and find information on Project Elephant. The pictures they find show deformed people who were involved in the project.

It appears that a pulse was developed by the military and helps camouflage the townspeople. But, the camouflage causes genetic deformities. Walter and Astrid investigate the source of this pulse and it leads them to a house with a large antennae which belongs to the daughter of the lead scientist on the project, Edward Cobb.

The local sheriff tells everyone in town not to worry because he will take care of everything. He attempts to get rid of Olivia and Peter again but is unsuccessful. When Broyles shows up, Walter begs him to just leave the people there alone and he agrees. They all leave and the people of this small town are left to live their lives in peace.

Next week, an infectious foe that has waited 75,000 years to kill everything on Earth is on its way and it’s infected Peter!

On Monday night, Fox sneaked in an unaired episode of Fringe about a teenage girl who is taken off life support after being declared brain dead. The girl didn’t stay dead for long though. While surgeons were harvesting her organs she wakes up, screaming out a an alphanumeric code, in Russian.

Come to find out, Lisa has developed some kind of psychic bond with Rusk (a dead soldier) to the extent that she sees him behind her when she looks into mirrors. But, this ability does help her show the police where Rusk’s body is, in the trunk of a car at a dump site.

The worst part, for Lisa, is that she is in very bad health. With Walter’s help, the team realizes that the soldier had suffered from radiation sickness and Lisa has contracted his illness, which is why she is so sick. Walter concludes that the radiation allowed the officer to transport his soul into Lisa’s body at the moment of her death, in effect “jump-starting” her system and bringing her back to life.

Walter, of course, knows how to cure this, get rid of Rusk, and get Lisa back to high school but before he is able to perform the procedure, Lisa/Rusk goes after Rusk’s wife who had hired someone to kill him. Olivia gets to Lisa just in time and they bring her back to the lab, get rid of the radiation, while Rusk downloads his consciousness into a car accident victim.

What was more bizarre than the plot of this episode was the fact that was actually left over from last season. So Charlie is still alive, the alternate world is hardly known and Astrid is barely visible. What’s even stranger is that Fox does in deed consider this the 11th episode of the second season. Maybe they’ve entered an alternate universe where they think no one will realize this ep doesn’t fit with the rest?

CBS easily won Monday night, again, with its insanely popular line-up of comedies. During its flagship night, the network defeated ABC and NBC in the 18-49 demographic and demonstrated series highs with The Big Bang Theory and the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother. Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders and Alyson Hannigan, the show netted its best numbers since last spring.

Two and Half Men with Charlie Sheen also had its best 18-49 demo performance since last winter and also its best audience average since December of 2008.

Rival Fox followed CBS with an episode of House and a “special airing” of their sci-fi sensation Fringe. The episode was played against NBC’s Heroes with stellar results. This week’s episode of Heroes was the series’ lowest-rated telecast ever. The airing of Fringe on Monday performed just as well as House’s usual follow-up of Lie To Me, which is off the schedule until the return of 24.

ABC’s Castle improved its performance in the demographic thanks to a strong lead-in from their reality show The Bachelor, which was up 9-percent with adults 18-49. Castle is up 24-percent from its last original airing.

At 8 p.m., the regular-slot season premiere of Chuck (2.6 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall) scored the show’s highest regular-slot results in 18-49 and total viewers since the special 3D telecast on February 2, 2009, the night after the Super Bowl. It was also the biggest total-viewer average for NBC in this time period with regular programming since that Feb. 2 Chuck.  In a time slot that last night included competition from Fox’s House, ABC’s The Bachelor and CBS’s comedies, Chuck generated growth from its first half-hour to its second of 8-percent in adults 18-49 (to a 2.7 from a 2.5) and 16 percent in adults 18-34 (2.2 vs. 1.9).

While most folks were sleeping soundly when the fireworks went off, champagne bottles popped and revelers passed out in the streets, 2010 arrived with fanfare and confetti. During the annual show in New York City and L.A., security was stepped up under the threat of terrorist activity. But for those who were awake and didn’t feel like freezing in the bitter cold, ABC was there to help.

ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve averaged an 8.7  rating 21 share in the 56 markets metered by Nielsen from 11:30 p.m.-1:15 a.m. (up 2% from last year’s 8.5/20).

From 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., NBC’S New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly delivered its best-ever metered-market household rating, topping each of the show’s five prior annual telecasts with a  5.2 household rating, 12 share in the 56 markets metered by Nielsen is up 4% from the previous high, last year’s 5.0/11. In the 24 markets with local People Meters, NBC’S New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly also delivered its best-ever result, a 3.4 rating in adults 18-49. That’s up 13% versus last year’s 3.0 adult 18-49 rating in the local people meters.

Fox’s Billboard’s New Year’s Eve Live delivered a 2.7/6 share in metered-market households from 11 p.m.-12:30 a.m., down 21% vs. last year’s 3.4/7)

CBS’s New Year’s Eve encore of Late Show (2.4/5 from 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., down 4% vs. last year’s 2.5/5).

Check out the ratings from Nielsen:

Time Net Show 18-49 Rating 18-49 Share Viewers Live+SD (Millions)

8:00 ABC Wild Hogs (movie) 1.5 6 6.140 NBC 30 Rock (repeat) 1.1 4 3.360 FOX Bones (repeat) 1.1 4 4.330 CBS Medium (repeat) 0.8 3 4.200 CW The Vampire Diaries (repeat) 0.4 2 1.190

8:30 ABC Wild Hogs (movie) 1.8 7 6.430 NBC 30 Rock (repeat) 1.0 4 2.930 FOX Bones (repeat) 1.0 4 4.320 CBS Medium (repeat) 0.8 3 4.110 CW The Vampire Diaries (repeat) 0.3 1 0.993

9:00 ABC Wild Hogs (movie) 1.9 7 6.860 CBS CSI (repeat) 1.0 4 6.680 NBC 30 Rock (repeat) 0.9 3 2.550 FOX Fringe (repeat) 0.7 3 2.310 CW Supernatural (repeat) 0.3 1 0.745

9:30 ABC Wild Hogs (movie) 2.1 8 7.310 CBS CSI (repeat) 1.3 5 7.520 NBC 30 Rock (repeat) 0.9 3 2.450 FOX Fringe (repeat) 0.7 2 2.120 CW Supernatural (repeat) 0.3 1 0.687

10:00 ABC Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’ Eve 2.5 9 7.540 CBS The Mentalist (repeat) 1.4 5 7.880 NBC New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly 1.1 4 3.170

10:30 ABC Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’ Eve 2.9 10 8.760 CBS The Mentalist (repeat) 1.5 5 8.190 NBC New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly 1.2 4 3.530

NBC’s long-running sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live, posted its best rating for adults aged 18-49 last weekend. Its prime time Christmas special last Thursday also provided the struggling network with solid numbers as well.

Saturday Night Live Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas posted a solid 3.1 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, NBC’s highest rating in the 8 to 10 p.m. time slot since Oct. 8.

The show averaged 7.8 million total viewers, a new season high in the slot, and it won the two-hour period among adults 18-34, though it finished second among 18-49s.

The special was a compilation of skits from past Christmas episodes and was hosted by Gilly (Kristen Wiig), a mischievous (and deadly!) re-occurring SNL character.

CBS led the night among 18-49s with a 3.6 average overnight rating and a 10 share. Boosted by SNL, NBC was second at 2.6/8, Fox third at 1.5/4, Univision fourth at 1.3/4, ABC fifth at 1.0/3 and CW sixth at 0.8/2.

All ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Thirty-three percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. CBS was first with a 3.9 for Survivor, the night’s top-rated show, followed by NBC with a 3.0 for the first hour of Saturday Night Live Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas. Fox was third with a 1.8 for a repeat of Bones, Univision fourth with a 1.3 for El Nombre del Amor. ABC was fifth with a 0.9 for a Grey’s Anatomy rerun and the CW sixth with a 0.8 for a repeat of The Vampire Diaries.

CBS was first again at 9 p.m. with a 3.5 for CSI, while NBC remained second with a 3.2 for more SNL. Univision was third with a 1.7 for Sortilegio, ABC and Fox tied for fourth at 1.2, ABC for more Grey’s Anatomy and Fox for a repeat of their sci-fi hit Fringe, and the CW was sixth with a 0.8 for another Vampire Diaries rerun.

At 10 p.m. CBS led with a 3.5 for The Mentalist, with NBC second with a 1.7 for The Jay Leno Show. ABC was third with a 1.0 for a repeat of Private Practice and Univision fourth with a 0.9 for Nuestra Navidad.

Among households, CBS was first for the night with an 8.9 average overnight rating and a 15 share. NBC was second at 4.3/7, Fox third at 3.5/6, ABC fourth at 2.7/4, Univision fifth at 1.8/3 and CW sixth at 1.2/2.

As the show opened last week, a mental patient was undergoing brain surgery by someone from the other side. While undergoing the surgery, he is discovered and leaves the man with his brain exposed.

The Fringe team comes in and learns that before this apparent surgery, the patient was crazy, but has become completely sane since having his brain opened up. After doing some research, the team finds out that this has happened several times to different patients at different mental facilities, including Walter.

The team comes to understand that all the patients had a piece of brain tissue removed, pieces of tissue that belong to Walter and were being stored in their brains. By the time they figure it out, Walter is drugged and taken by the man from the other side (Newton) and his team. Newton brings Walter to his old home, reinserts the tissue and asks him to remember how he opened the door between the two worlds.

Newton takes off leaving a dying Walter behind. Olivia catches Newton, but she is left with two choices: She could have arrested Newton and gotten answers to all her questions, or she’ll have to let him go to save Walter. Olivia lets Newton go free and runs back to save Walter right in the nick of time.

Last week’s episode began with a Chinese man crying out in pain as a tentacle begins to emerge from one of his nostrils followed by several more and then another man pulls the creature out of his mouth as he dies.

Meanwhile the fringe team arrives at the shore where a Chinese merchant ship has run ashore, several people were washed ashore with the same large worm-like creatures in their mouths. Walter takes one of the creatures back to the lab, while the rest of the team rushes a woman who is still breathing to the hospital. The woman, Mei Lin, tells Olivia that the others took a seasickness medication but she didn’t take it. She told them her daughter and husband were scheduled to arrive on another boat in two days.

At the lab, Walter believes that humans were used as incubators for the worms. Olivia finds out that they have someone in custody after finding a manifest in a sunken ship.

Peter recognizes the tattoos on the man’s  body and realizes that he was a member of a gang known for transporting drugs. The man kills himself with a razor blade before they can talk to him. After an investigation,  they discover a woman, Elizabeth Jarvis, who transferred $500,000 to one of  the shell companies for this organization, Beijing Executive Construction.

After speaking to the woman, Peter realizes something is up because the woman has hand sanitizer everywhere. He goes back later and talks to her son Matt alone,who admits he suffers from a rare immune deficiency disorder and the  powder from a gland in the worm is the only thing keeping him alive. His next treatment is scheduled in 2 days, the  same day as the next boat’s arrival from China.

This makes sense because back at the lab Walter is inadvertently bitten by one of the worms and he discovers that his white blood cell count is  high and he has new antibodies meaning the worm is medicine.

The boat carrying Mae Lin’s family finally arrives but the FBI istoo late and everyone if off the boat. Peter tracks them down in Chinatown. He goes in first alone and they try to feed him one of the worms but he is able to fight them off until the rest of the team gets there, saving the immigrants and shutting down their organization.

Peter found the location after picking up Walter who was lost in Chinatown and couldn’t remember Peter’s number. When he realizes he can’t be on his own, Walter implants a tracking device into his neck so Peter can always find him.